Fight for the Right: Norwich Prematch

Today an acquaintance asked after Arsenal’s weekend opponents. After I explained the significance of this afternoon’s match he said “why worry, it is only a football game.” Firstly, this shows a total misunderstanding of the Raddy psyche, but more to the point, it indicates a lack of understanding of the nature of importance. Let us not be fooled, sex is not important (though the lack of it is!), breathing is not important (though the lack of it is!), what is important is that Arsenal finish the season above the Miscreants crawling their way out of N17. And beating Norwich is not just important – it is vital.

If one had to choose an opponent to play in this situation it would be a mid-table team who had an attacking, open footballing philosophy. Norwich fit the bill perfectly. We couldn’t have asked for better opponents. But ….. in recent seasons, we have seen an Arsenal team crumble under the weight of expectation so regularly that we can no longer trust them to take 3 points in these circumstances. Hence the nerves.

And there are nerves aplenty. Fans will be taking lucky routes to the ground, wearing lucky socks, knickers, shirts, hats, eating lucky sweets, drinking in lucky pubs, sitting in lucky seats etc etc. And from what I read on the site Corks will be much in evidence :-D

What is needed today is strength of character. We are a better team in every area than Norwich and under normal circumstances 3 points would be de rigeur; should our boys perform there will be little of concern. Any doubts within the team must be dispelled -as such the team Leaders have to get in the faces of the more reticent players and fire them up.

We need some of this ….

with a large spoon of this

It is the time for RvP to lead from the front, for TV to inspire his defence and for Song to grab the game by the scruff of it’s neck . Time for our wingers to be lethal in front of goal and for our shots to be on target. No quarter must be given and every ball fought for. Norwich will not just cede 3 points, they can be a dangerous opponent. Concentration from the whole team is essential, and should things go awry we must find the Sagna spirit shown in the Spurs game.

…. none of this.

The team almost picks itself. We have a solid and dependable Back 5, with either Gibbs or Santos at LB depending upon the opposition. I would play Santos today.

My Team:

One hopes that Mr Wenger decides to be more attacking at home and play O.C from the start but I cannot see him taking the risk. In such an important game it would be foolish to experiment and as such I expect him to play safe.

The last home game and therefore this season’s final Gooner. I think it should be a man who never gave up, a proper Gooner and a working class hero. To those of a certain age the Henry Cooper / Cassius Clay fight at Wembley is a stand out point in sporting history. Our ‘Enry was the first man to knock Clay down and had it not been for some Angelo Dundee skulduggery Cooper would have won. Instead he got badly injured and forced to retire. It was a special night and made ‘Enry’s ‘Ammer a household name. In the rematch at his beloved Highbury Stadium Cooper lost and soon after retired. Twice Sports Personality of the Year and made a Knight in 2000 (the only boxer ever to be knighted) Sir Henry Cooper remained a National Treasure until his death in 2011.

and most of all Our ‘Enry’s courage and determination

Once again faith will be the bedrock of our game – a belief that through teamwork Arsenal will win. And today even more than normal the fans have to be behind the team. No losing patience, no getting on the players backs – we need the type of atmosphere created against Spurs, Milan and City. To those lucky enough to be going – make it loud!

Today is the 900th game of Mr Wenger Arsenal career, it is also likely to be the final home game of Pat Rice’s working life at Arsenal. So, let’s win in style and give them something to remember .

I would not like to embarrass you by sounding effusively complimentary, and it is possible that some erudite AAers may think I occasionally indulge in a soupçon of hyperbole, (surely not :-) ) but I genuinely look forward to reading your witty, clever pre-match articles because they are always au point! :-):-)

Your time and effort in producing such quality is really appreciated by all of us!!

I am preparing myself for a tough game. Norwich have nothing to lose and have played some of their best football away from home this season. Lambert is a good tactical manager and will set up his team in such a way that they will pounce on our weaknesses whenever possible.

But, with the right attitude and the ability to take our chances early in the game, we should win.

Raddy, As you say….. VITAL
im neither confident or nervy…see how i cope with the minutes ticking away..but this pint of cognac should do the trick..

im sort of leaning to Oz’s prediction of early goals followed by a calm cruise control..i also feel its important that we go out and kill this game off in the first half as we cant keep counting on lady luck late in our games..the only team that can beat the Arsenal today is Arsenal and i just dont see it happening..

GiE,
no doubt..the bad thing about such an early goal is you dont know what can happen next as the teams havnt even settled..it can cause panic n lead to a 2nd which kills the game off as it did for wigan against us or complacency sets in and an equaliser automatically gives a team belief to go for it regardless of their quality..

either way its exciting and prefer an open game when Arsenal play..we should have just enough weapons to open em up again

i like your braver suggestion GiE,
Ramsey obviously has quality but his positional sense is still on an apprenticeship level..the gaps between he and song are enough to reverse park a jumbo jet, in turn it looks like yossi and rosicky have to go solo and try the impossible everytime as no one gives them options..RvP misses a partner again…

What I can’t understand is at 1-0 up we sit back as if we now need to protect it….when did this come back into our minds? We haven’t done that for last 6 months but suddenly in a must win game we get a goal and drop into our shells. But we don’t drop in and say lets not beat us or actively defend we just stand in nomams land and do nothing.

Norwich attacked and if we had some fight for possession higher up pitch we would have been able to counter quickly. Instead we’re now 2-1 down and they have no reason to commit.

I don’t think it’s a question of wanting it. It’s a question of being too scared to do anything about it.

Drives me insane and probably Wenger and Rice too. I accept unlucky 1-0 defeats where we give everything. The performance we’ve seen first half is hard to accept. You have to feel sorry for Koz and TV as they have no screen in front of them again. Their centre forwards are dropping deep into their own half to win second balls and we have no midfielder close. It’s where Arteta would be, it’s where Song should be, he is the elder of the two and he should be taking responsibility for that area.

Seriously can belevieve someone can be so retarded, Who season Gervinho keep trying to beat players and always losing the ball, for god sake try something different because what u doing isn’t work you jack

The boys are plying like they went out drinking last night. No urgency and they all look slow. Halftime and a good arse kicking from Wenger had better sober them up. We’ve got 45 to turn it around like have so many times this season. If we can’t win when only a win can gaurantee CL football next season, in our last home game of the season then what can we hope for next week?

Ramsey has been nonexistent! Gervinho and Song poor. Ox needs to come on For Gervinho

Thank god the team showed some spirit second half eventually, but very disappointing to see us concede another goal in such an easy way given we had hauled ourselves back into it, but still the ref could have given us a penalty and we could have got another one.

Song tried to drive us forward and kept trying..but he was awful . Fot the equaliser he he receives the ball from Tommy, who moves into space to receive the return. Instead of returning it…Song dallies (again!!!) and then gives it to Norwich. Absolutely ridiculous, plain and simply ridiculous.

This game was a classic example of how Ramsey slows the whole team down. He strolled around like it was a Sunday morning game at Finsbury Park. It was only went he was subbed that the team came alive. In the end we could have and should have won.

i disagree sharkespeare. We should have gotten two in the second half. One for a handball (his bloody arm was in the air ala fabregas), and the second launched RVP into the net. Their one was touch and go i think, it was a 50/50 where each player was man handling one another and both went to ground.

i was also impressed with chamma once he game on, it really lifted RVP’s game. His determination to get the ball meant their clearance turned into a spillage for song to get the assist. I hope sagna hasn’t done an achilles, because as we’ve seen with vermaelan it could be 9-12 months out

I think after the scrutiny ref’s suffered after Youngs dives it has to be a sending off offence for the ref to give a penalty now, as i said at the time if you’re a ref that has played the game and you know RvP is in the form of his life, and he is two yards out from goal and the ball is their to be slid in, rammed home whatever, ask yourself a question, would he dive? If he wouldn’t its a penalty and Naughton gets sent off.

good points GiE. It’s simple physics, forward motion will not carry you that hard into the net without added force behind you! A shove in the back any day of the week. He obviously didn’t get the memo that RVP scores when we wants! what is he saying RVP didn’t want to score???

@ Sharkespeare

i disagree, but hey you might of saw something i didn’t.

I do agree their keeper did pull off a lot of great saves. The curse of the keeper continues when playing arsenal!

Oz,
how can i wish you a ‘happy’ birthday when as you’ve stated that would involve your roos winning..either way i hope you have a good one and il have a few quiet ones (for both of us) over this side..anyway its already your birthday here so in case i do a Rocky and supress football for a while il take the opportunity to say Happy Birthday Oz Gunner, play it safe, and may your present be an unexpected gem for Arsenal in the transfer window

RurP yes he could have done better with the first he got caught with his weight shifted to the right but he could’ve done better. The second was a replica of the Spuds first and he could do nothing about it. The third he got caught hesitating coming out of his goal when he started backtracking he was in a really bad position. Conversely Ruddy made good decisions to come and stay all game.

Who went to Sz after the goal and said unlucky….no one on my screen. Which leads to him contemplating it, then the defence repeatedly gave him dodgy back passes but didn’t move for him to receive again. Keeping is a confidence game especially at his age. And moreso than any other position on the pitch.

means nothing really GiE, i think Nasri did a shoot as well and the same talk was going around..its down to players and or CL qualification..it might get ugly in the summer, if we finish fourth and have to go through the back door for CL, i see RvP stalling with bad PR following all the way..i have very little faith in our board when it comes to our transfer dealings

OMG, that was such pants!!!!!!!!! Yossi scores an amazing goal and then the team decides it’s not going to bother to attack the ball anymore – just let the opposition back into the game because afterall we’re Arsenal and much better than them and so what ever they do we can always get back into the game ………….

Rubbish first half, 2nd half only improved by the removal of Ramsey.

…………… so, we get back into the game 3-2 with five minutes to go and then throw the three points down the pan by allowing Norwich back into the game again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The referee was poor but hell not as poor as our mid-field who just let Norwich stroll through whenever they wanted. Why do we allow teams the space to run onto us????????????????

I’m gutted, absolutely gutted, another end of season collapse. If you think I’m angry, wait until Rasp surfaces aaaarrrrrgggghhhhh

This is so painful. Im not giving up, but its sad to watch, we can debate all the things that didnt go our way, but all that matters is our recent form, when we had third in our hands.
we are screwing up plans for next season. I can live for one year without champs league, i have faith in our talent, even though the league is only getting tougher with oil money. BUT
there is a cascade effect, and not a good one. No champs league spot means much harder to keep rvp and song, and much harder to bring in quality.
sorry, im normally less pessimistic. Maybe we will get some help from villains, city, bayern. We shouldnt have needed it.

I know some of you are going to hammer me for this but – is there anybody on here who wants to see Ramsey start against WBA ? Any stat: freaks with some detail of our results when Ramsey starts? I know we win and lose as a team ,but it’s never that simple is it? I honestly have no intention of getting on his back but it’s becoming blindingly obvious that he’s not up to wearing the shirt. Yes , I hear you , today he wasn’t alone , but seems like he’s making a habit of it .

Jnyc the club have planned for loss of CL money I would assume our current model can be maintained if we lost it for one season. Two seasons and we would struggle.

As for RvP and Song staying going, the first is a worry, the second is not in my opinion the end of the world.

Spanish I never like the expression not fit to wearing the shirt or in your case not up to it. I think if David Hillier and Perry Groves were good enough then Rambo certainly is.

When he plays first touch football it can be good, the outside the boot pass into Gibbs path that eventually led to the chance he scuffed was a sublime pass showing what he is capable of. There were a couple of other passes early off that we’re good first time touches, but when a couple go astray he starts to slow up his play. There were others who as you say didn’t play well today. I see little value in picking out one player. Once Rambo was substituted Song played deeper, why didn’t he start like that?

The greatest manager Arsenal have ever had??? Nay, nay, and thrice nay!!! Shambolic considering what is at stake. No bottle or defensive cohesion. Szczesny better than Cech???
And I still want Paul Lambert as manager.

The players and their attitude reflect the personality of the manager.
Arsenal fans on here are so polite and generous in their defence of our manager who only offers one tactical dimension. The only reason for the slight change in tactics in the second half today was because we’re running out of personnel, and now we go to WBA having to rely on our 19 year-old back-up right back. Defensively, Vermaelen has been woeful, and he’s our vice-captain. Are we really supposed to be persuading RvP to stay?

Now remember the thing we Arsenal fans like to do is get on the back of a 22 year old keeper with 15-16 years ahead of him and compare him to a 30yr old keeper in his prime or even the 25 year old Joe Hart. How about we compare him to the £20m keeper Ferguson signed.

And whilst we are bashing the club we like to say Wenger is not the greatest manager we have had. If he had left in 2005 when Madrid amongst others pursued him so greatly he would be (on years in job vs trophies). He stayed….was loyal to the club…despite knowing he was going to be severely restricted in his squad building….but he stayed.

Lambert is a fine manager, let’s see him with a few more years experience of PL before we decide he is the man for us. In fact let’s set our sights a bit higher perhaps. This great club should not be employing a manager with 1 seasons PL experience and zero European management experience.

Lambert has nowhere near the same resources as AW, and yet he was able to tactically influence the game with shrewd substitutions. When was the last time we did that?
Factored into your win percentages is Norwich’s 1st season back in the PL without a massive outlay. Two successive promotions, and I bet his win stats are quite high before this season.
Was there any logical explanation for not bringing Friedel in on a Free last summer?

And just so you know Sharkey, after taking a short break from blogging, I have been posting regularly for a few weeks now, win lose or draw. Personally, I truly detest the ‘blinkered type who defend the indefensible’. Is it a coincidence that Arsenal fans are divided and many disillusioned?

When did substitutions change a game? Erm well today we were 2-1 down, Rambo was playing poorly and Yossi was tiring. AW put Ox on for Rambo and then Cham for Yossi and we scored 2 and were winning 3-2.

I don’t think Lambert made any more subs after then, he’d already made them and taken away their most potent threat. Then Song left TV in the lurch and they scored. Well at least that’s what I saw, but we obviously saw different games.

Lambert has plywood his trade in the 1st division with one of the highest paid squads in it, and did really well in the Championship. Moyes has done a better job at Everton on less and Wigan under Martinez beat us, ManUre and Liverpool. I’d say he was ahead.

The way I see it is, we did brilliant to get up to 3rd, it`s going a bit pear shaped now, but maybe if we dont qualify for CL for next year, it might do us good. We might be the greatest classiest club in the world , but we`re rose tinted in thinking we are a great team, we are a good team and a good squad who happen to have shit luck with injuries. I think we all know we need a midfield magician, get one and with some of the youngsters coming through I think the future is looking sound. I said months ago, missing CL might be the kick up the backside we need, still hope we get it , but it wont be the end of us if we dont.
Your probably well peed off, but why ?, because you love this club so much it hurts and there it is ,” you love this club ” !.

GiE,
That was before our inexcusable performances against QPR and Wigan, who with all due respect, should be no match for Arsenal on a football pitch. And remember, we had 80+ minutes to change things against Wigan and quickly ran out of ideas.

Hey Sharkey….you don’t have to apologise to me……we are in this together.

Sometimes we all say things in the heat of the moment and regret it later, myself included. Thats why I am keeping quiet after todays draw.

I could go on all night about our failings today (imo) but it will not alter one jot.

Baines could have been our left back today (Wengers choice not to buy him).

Lansbury is out on loan to West Ham, he could have been a fresh midfielder in stead of Ramsey today?

Penny pinching on a misfit (again, my opinion) Chamahk, Im sure there are plenty who could come on and do a far better job that him. Oh and by the way, while we are on Chamahk, do you think Wenger will get rid of him this summer?

@GIE . I find myself , most of the time , in agreement with your frequent posts here, but I can´t agree about Ramsey . Maybe in time I will have to eat my words , in fact , I hope I have to , but I doubt it. It´s a fact , clear for all to see , that he´s not performing. How long does a top club persevere with an under achiever ? I doubt that he´d still be in the squad at any of the top , or near the top , of the Premier League contenders . Successful clubs always seem to have a ruthlessness about them which we currently don´t have . I hope Ramsey comes good but right now he´s a luxury we can´t afford so I believe he should be loaned out for a season , then let´s argue the point . I stand by what I said , he´s not up to wearing the shirt – not yet anyway – and I for sure don´t want to see him start against WBA !

Well, its in the hands of the Gods wether we get champions league qualification or not. There are more permutations than my head can handle, so lets wait and see.

We were very poor in the first half, no doubt. What struck me, from watching in the clouds, was the amount of running the Norwich players were doing, incredible.

Ime as dissapointed as anyone, but my faith in our manager and the direction our club is going is unshakeable. The forth coming pre season will be vital in the development of our team next season. Lets get Jack, Alex C, and Podolski embedded in the side and see how we do. Personaly, i think we are the only team next year that are capable of chalanging the Manc clubs.

The Club is at a cusp of a new era and history has a tendency to repeat itself when all conditions are met. Our last two succesful eras were kick started in 1989 and 1998. Now if you track your minds back to 1988 & 1997, how many would have thought we would win the league the following season?, in truth very few. For me, the right conditions are there for the beggining of a succesful era.

I will say only this.
I recognise there are many well-heeled professional people that visit and enjoy commenting here, and whilst my emotions for Arsenal may fluctuate, if you trace back over every comment I’ve ever made, I have never used foul language either in the course of my commenting, or towards another blogger. We may all differ in our opinion, but we all love Arsenal, and good manners cost nothing.
Personal attacks of that sort do a fantastic blog a major dis-service.

You know it makes sense VCC. Jack will become the best midfield player in the world and captain Arsenal and England. I agree we need tweaking, every one likes a bit of a tweak hehehe. We are very close, and next season i reckon “its up for grabs now” time.

VCC – I am terribly disappointed with today’s result and furious with the team. But to blame the manager? What for? What has he done wrong??

Have you ever managed a team? I have and it was too difficult for me, couldn’t crack it. With all the change controls in place and ‘Managing Change’ seminars top managers were changed faster than Usain Bolt could ever sprint. Yet Wenger manages in a most dynamic of environments, where situation changes every second; manages team of mostly immature, not terribly bright individuals, and when they don’t turn up for the game, he is blamed.

There are times that no matter what you do, how well you prepare and how precise your planning, you cannot foresea it all. Shit happens. It happened today. End of.

I `ve had a hard day, filming for the 4th instalment of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was tiring my precious, so I could have done without having to remove some bastards pictures off every mirror in my house !.

VCC,
Agree with your “dross ones”, apart from Park, I`ve never seen him play so I cant comment on how good or bad he is !.
Your second list. Arshavin would be good enough if his rectum was filled with semtex !. The rest I like , apart from JD. Just an opinion though.

I was at the game. It would be good if everyone could stop being over defensive of their favourite player or indeed every player just because they think it is the right thing to do.

I predicted that we would not get 6 points from the last 2 games – which we won’t and I identified the usual end of season collapse – which we are experiencing.

This isn’t because I’m the world’s greatest manager or have the IQ of Stephen Hawking, it’s simply because I recognise patterns and can use them to predict consequences.

We still haven’t won a game without Arteta. He has been the most important player in the team this season. He has not been coached by Arsenal from the start and has therefore retained his natural instinct in his approach to play, the same is true of Benayoun. The majority of our players are over-coached in a single style of play.

Our midfield was the problem today – primarily the central midfield and specificaly Ramsey and Song. Obviously Ramsey was poor and once again Song failed to step up and take the senior role, instead he was back to his old ponderous self. Neither of them made enough effort to get back and defend when the back four was under pressure.

The manager was seriously at fault for leaving Ramsey on the pitch for as long as he did. The energy and forward momentum was ramped up considerably as soon as The Ox came on.

As I predicted, Norwich outplayed us at proper, ball on the ground football in the same way Swansea and Wigan had previously.

The plusses are that after a truly woeful first half, Gervinho improved greatly in the second half and when he actually took the fullback on skinned him almost every time. If Ramsey had fed him the ball earlier instead of always shunning the simple early pass he may have been much better in the first half.

Coquelin is a really good footballer. He should have started in place of Ramsey, obviously the unfortunate injury to Sagna prevented that substitution subsequently.

Chamakh finally looked like the player who joined us. He did everything right when he came on and if he could play like that consistently could be a useful super-sub to come on in games such as this when we need an aerial presence.

VCC I guess it is the use of the term “dross” when talking about a young mam, footballer or not.

I would agree that most of the players you mention should be sold. Apart from Ramsey , Gibbs and Gervinho who had a fine 2nd half. Gibbs had a stinker but he has time to learn. As I said in the post I would have used Santos.

As it happens,yes, I have managed a team of young men in a Sunday league, and I agree it was terribly difficult to keep them all satisfied. Nothing near the heights of God (Arsene Wenger)

Im not trying to be big here, but as you seem to question my opinions so, I have also played at semi professional level, and although that does not give me the devine right to be correct, I ask you to read my previous post regarding how many on Arsenals books would be on the top 4 premiership clubs books? Not many imo.

I am a Wenger lover (contrary to what you seem to think) but I happen to have an opinion that he is a stubborn so and so and will not listen/accept criticism.

My only hope/wish is for Arsenal to win/be successful next year.

If you did not have your rose tinted glasses on today you would have seen the same game as many in my local. All of whom thought Ramsey (without exception) was poor and the tactics in the first half was poor.

Lastly, “Shit happens”, your words, not mine. Totally, but shit has been happening far too often these past several years, and he appears not to have addressed the problems.

Rasp, i agree with most of that, except the bit about Norwich playing on the ground. They mixed it about and were quite direct. But it has to said, style or not, they were brilliant in the first half. I would be very interested to see the stats in terms of the amount of running they did in the first half compared to our players, they seemed to have a lot more energy.

Rasp,
Stats dont always tell the full story, as I was not at the game I just look at the stats and they paint a picture of Arsenal dominance, were we outplayed ?, unlucky ?, I didn`t see any of it, I value your thought `s on the game.

First half we were crap Cornwall. They pressed us all over the pitch and we couldnt get going at all. They were a constant threat, knocking balls into Holt, who was bringing others into play. second half, especialy last half an hour they got knackered and we had enough chances to win the game, but still looked vulnrable to there counter attacks. Overall there can be no excuses for today, we were simply not good enough.

Thanks TMHT, yes, Norwich played to their strengths – one of which was their strength, our players were bouncing off of them. So you’re right, and they were right to identify that they could muscle us off the ball. They outfought and outran us and they played direct and pacy football.

glic, I think Norwich deserved to win for their first half performance, we shaded it in the second, but after we scored we were truly dreadful for the rest of that half

VCC – I am not questioning your opinion, far from it, I value it. Wow, you managed football teams, congrats! You are a better man than me:)

What I am questioning is the fact that you cannot put the blame solely on his shoulders. I am annoyed with the team, but not the manager, I’d say he is more angry than you or me. If anything, I feel his pain. All the hard work was possibly (hopefully not) undone today by sheer laziness of some.

Very true Rasp.Your also right about Arteta. This season when hes been absent we lose all cohesion to our play and have periods were we just dont know what to do. The Jack wilshere injury has also realy hurt us this year

There are now many similarities between Ramsey and Denilson. I remember when I couldn’t wait for Denilson to get on the pitch, he was like a photofit Cesc and would often replace him on the pitch without any loss of continuity.

But then his game started to change. It had nothing to do with the fans – I repeat nothing to do with the fans. It was like he had been sent out with a set of instructions that completely robbed him of all his natural football instincts.

Just like Ramsey he would hold onto the ball too long, he’d spot the early pass but decide not to take it in case something better presented itself, and when it didn’t he’d make the pass he should have in the first place but by this time the recipient would have been closed down and the ball would be passed sideways or backwards and all the momentum would be lost out of our attack.

That is exactly what is happening with Ramsey. Ironically he was the shining light we all celebrated as the talented player who had displaced the then unpopular Denilson.

Ramsey needs to be told to keep it simple and keep the ball moving. To make himself available to collect a pass all the time, but to move the ball on swiftly not always be looking for the killer pass.

The coaching methods are choking the life out of the poor lad, he’s been made to feel like he needs to be Messi. The manager keeps putting him in the firing line and some of his senior colleagues have failed to support him.

GLiC……….Im not the Messiah, but we were up for it in the first 5 mins. We went one nil up and seemed to be up for it. After that Norwich took over.

They upped there energy levels and wanted it. We seemed to think it was all over. In fact the half time score could (and should) have been at least 1-3, even 1-4. That would not have embarrassed Norwich.

We lacked the desire and drive that should have been evident with a top three team.

Admittedly we improved in the second half, but carrying too many passengers proved a 90 minutes too far.

Norwich have decent midfielders but, you would like to think Arsenal could field better??????????

Yes TMHT, for the nth season, key injuries have debilitated the team. I don’t know the stats for other teams, perhaps they are the same. I only know that is uncanny how our injuries always seem to be to the ones we need the most and at the time we need them the least.

But there was a serious lack of fight from one or two out there today.

Thanks guys,
Rasp , would I be correct in thinking that If you had your way we would revert to to the old Arsenal ( arsene) system of a more direct pace and power brand of football ala ” Bergkamp ,Pires,Henry, Lundberg ” than the Tippy Tappy stuff ?. Probably sounds like a stupid question considering they were Invincible !. :)

Sadly we don’t have players of quite that quality these days glic. I think the standard of football in the Premiership is in decline at the moment.

But yes, with the player we have, we should be able to control games against most teams. The slow methodical build up is our achilles heal because we slowly compress play in the opposition’s half which makes us vulnerable to being hit on the break. When we gain possession in our own half we don’t get it out wide quickly enough and before we know it our wingers (if you can call them that) are running into dead ends and the move breaks down.

GLiC…..The heights of the invincibles may never be reached by Arsenal again, but the tippy tappy stuff we now use is becoming laughable. Just sit in a local watching an Arsenal game with opposing supporters and it might tell a story, week after week I hear the same old mocking laugh. Sometimes when we are in the clear inside the box we still can’t shoot!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is that? You tell me.

Then when his left back makes a school boy error (once again) he throws his water bottle to the floor.

I would love to have a pint in the local with Arsene and ask him, if you feel like that WHY do you always/persevere with him?

Rasp,
I`ve always thought along the simple lines that If a team is tippy tappying the ball about, it`s easy for the opposition to get players back behind the ball and defend easier , then bang quick counter attack !.

hahahaha, just imagine having an argument with Arsene Wenger, that would be sureal. If he refused to shake my hand and called me a naugthy name i would be heart broken. Think i would start crying and beg for forgiveness……and then he would probably punch me in the face. hahahaha

I was disappointed with the shape of our midfield and individual performances of Ramsey, Song and Rosicky. Raddy made the best comment when he said we lacked composure. We seldom or never looked composed/in control today, and it is a big worry. We do miss Arteta badly, but also Mertesacker. I have now seen too many of these nervy, chaotic CB performances by TV and Koz that I am convinced Mertesacker is badly missed. The midfield did not help the CB’s either and Sagna’s injury and Gibbs relatively poor performance left them often overly exposed, but I expect more composure and leadership from Koz and TV.

There is every reason to be disappointed today, as we really needed to win, BUT it might still turn out to be a good point for us in the end. The pressure is fully back on the Spuds again tomorrow and that might work in our favour. The fat lady has not sung yet after all, so let’s keep the faith. :)

Do you really think we still do tippy-tappy football? One reason why teams dare to attack us all-over the pitch is our lack of tippy-tappying the ball round. It is also a myth that we don’t shoot (on target) enough – we just don’t have enough players with the right skills at the moment . I am sure next season we’ll get back to tippy-tappy football, but this season Wenger has been playing his Plan-B, because he had no other choice with the injuries to Jack and Diaby.

Hi GiE, I only remember Cesc ‘going backwards’ when his yearning to get back to his DNA became too strong :?

But seriously, Cesc is a better footballer that Ramsey or Denilson could ever be – that is the point, they shouldn’t be trying to be Cesc. Ramsey needs to have the pressure taken off of him not pile on. I’d seriously consider sending him out on loan for the first half of next season.

I do think the focus on ‘wengerball’ is becoming part of the problem. I’d hoped that the new players might herald a return to basics, but is it any coincidence that so many have succumbed to lomg term injury?

VCC, hahahahaha. I think your going to give our Cornwall a Gollum complex. Anyway, i think Cornwalls got the right idea about watching a film, i need to watch something to take my mind of football, but the question is what???………ahhhgg, sod it, weres my dvd of fever pitch?

TA. I agree that losing BFG was costly. IMO he is our best defender because he is the one who can influence those around him. TV has passion aplenty, Kos is a fine tackler but neither has “nous” or defensive intelligence which is BFG’s strength.

F.Eks. Where was our defensive line today?
Why could we not play the off-side trap?
Why did Gibbs venture forward at the same time as Sagna, thus leaving us depleted at the back?
Why didn’t Song or Ramsey shield the CB’s?
Why didn’t Benayoun track back when Gibbs bombed forward?

All it needed was a cool head on the pitch to talk it through. RvP is a fine leader but Defensive Coach he certainly isn’t. Poor Robin must have been aghast when he saw the terrible defending for NC’s 3rd goal after hauling us back in front.

VCC, it is very frustrating. The Spuds have a good chance now – let’s see whether they can deliver. I doubt it.

Raddy, you are so right – no nous, no organisation: nobody demanding a certain shape and positioning to the team. I love TV and I love Koz but we were so gong-ho today. Scoring three at home and yet not taking all three points would be bad against top opponents, but to Norwich – with all respect – is disastrous.

And you are also right about van Persie’s possible response to this all. Challenging times :(

He might have come on for Rambo I suppose if Rambo was getting stick. I’m pretty certain he would have protected the back four if he was given that job. I think he’s a really good footballer, he’s calm on the ball, always aware of what’s going on around him, picks a pass, kicks the ball cleanly, links up well with others. I’d hate to see him go because we are persisting with Rambo for example. Too good to lose IMHO

I like him too Peaches. Very promising player who needs a run of games to show us how consistent he can be. It all can change so quickly for young players. Rambo was part of the wall of ARS in the autumn that was so important for our revival. Look what has happened to him now: fans’ cannon-fodder for all that is bad about Arsenal. It could easily happen to Coquelin too.

TA, there you go again, blaming the fans – it’s ridiculous, why this obsession with scapegoating the whole fanbase?

I would argue that Ramsey was not an important part of your ARS system, he hasn’t played that well all season and has further dropped in form since Arteta’s injury and the weight of running the central midfield fell on his shoulders

I agree TA, the poor bloke must find it hard to look in the mirror because of the things said about him. His first full season and we are expecting him to be a world beater. Just because wilshere did it does not mean every player can.

Yes he’s having a bad run but it’s Arsene who is playing him. Not to mention Song bombing forward all the time leaves him unsure of his positioning (in a position he’s played little all season).

The day is done and the dust has settled. You asked where ‘Food Glorious Food’ has gone?
At that point in time, I really believed we’d turned the corner and everything was falling into place. But in reality, we were only ever an Arteta injury away from disaster, and boy do we collect injuries!
It wasn’t even the defeats – they happen – it was the manner in which we meekly surrendered. We’ve been watching the same thing over and over for a few years now. Doesn’t there reach a certain point at which you have to ask when the penny will drop? If we can see it’s been going on for far too long, what is the manager watching?
Nowhere among Arsenal fans is he cherished more than here on AA, and I’m sure that has brought many here to share that sentiment, but the danger there is that he is above blame. People take criticism of AW as though it were a personal attack on their character, which leaves little margin for debate.
Every year for the past four years the defence has conceded more goals, and despite changing personnel we still get exposed by playing a high line. As Rasp said, too often we have identikit midfield players who quickly run out of creativity and momentum and either get in each other’s way or run into cul-de-sacs, our ‘wingers’ are more miss than hit, and we only have one real goal-threat.
Of course people have every right to defend their heroes, but for a growing number of Arsenal fans, his failure to address the most obvious issues mean he is becoming more of a liability than an asset.
We have suffered from his over-reliance on a 19 year-old kid last season, and the same has happened with Ramsey this. So no lessons learned there. Szczesny is learning on the job and cost us valuable points with his inexperience, which is another area that wasn’t dealt with properly because of AW’s obsessive patience with Almunia. When a manager starts getting more things wrong than he gets right, people are entitled to ask if he has anything left to bring to the table. Not only are many Arsenal fans wondering that, they are openly ridiculing his decision-making.
Some are disrespectful and get far too carried away with their abuse, but among the growing number of AW dissenters are very educated Arsenal fans of 40 and 50 odd years. Are they really so wide of the mark? I don’t know the answer, but what I do know is that having such a divided support cannot benefit the club in the long term.

I really want to say this, Rasp mentioned earlier an excellent observation, i.e. Arteta and Ben are not ‘coached ‘ in the Arsene mode in their previous league experience, that’s why they offer something different and see a wider picture of the game ( if given the chance to play on the field.) And one might as well add Mert into the same category. They’re not flashy kind of players, just methodically sound which makes perfect sense.

According to the BBC Sagna has broken his fibula, the report says that someone stamped on him. I don’t understand this because when he pulled up no one was near him.
I haven’t seen the game on the telly. Did someone stamp on him just before he pulled up? Does this make sense? What happened?

Morning all
Do you know what, we are pointing finger at everybody, but the guy that did lose us the game, ie Mr Bloody Szczesny. I am sorry GiE, but he did, he was awful. If we had a better goalie, we would have won the game 3:0.

Morning all,
My thoughts are that with one game to go, we need to save the personal stuff for later. The thought of finishing below Spuds and Thursday foottball is bloody horrendous.
Herb makes some very valid points and (unless there has been some editing) then he has been polite and I happen to agree with an awful lot of what he says.
Got back from the beach at midnight with my biggest regret being we didn’t take sleeping bags and supplies and stayed the night by our driftwood fire. Perfect for forgetting about football.

Micky – yes, we didn’t throw our chances yesterday alone. We had a season of up-and-down perfomances, from individuals and the team.

….sorry had to remove dog from my head..

where was I ? Yeah. The fact remains that neither you nor I, not anybody else here has any influence over AW’s appointement. I therefore accept that he is our manager and for as long as somebody else is appointed, Wenger has my full support. I also happened that the sun shines from his bottom, but regardless of that, I am loyal and will remain loyal to whoever our manager might be,. That’s the very least he deserves.

In Poland there is a proverb ‘Drunk the blood, didn’t leave a mark’. In this country (officially fatest in Europe ha ha ha) you say ‘there is more than one way to skin a cat’.

I managed to see the game though to be truthful had a lot of other things on my mind.
I have read all the diverse comments and with all due respect, many are playing football manager, as it is always easy to be critical after a match and point out individuals to having a bad game.
I see it differently. I wasn’t actually surprised that we only drew, as our season has been so unpredictable and even taking account of various injuries but the manner in which we played surprised me. having said that I would suggest that was the worst referring display I have seen this season concerning Arsenal.
I support the club, but there are many unanswered questions as our season fizzles out. We may finish third to sixth but this squad has not got the depth for various reasons to win the title or CL and maybe a year without CL football might trigger a response from those in charge.
In a nutshell our tactics were wrong and I have to say that most of the blame lays with Wenger and those who coach the squad. If they can’t motivate the players,regardless of who is available, there is something seriously wrong.I never thought I would feel this way, but time and time again this season (after a poor start) we have collapsed against teams that a top 4 side should beat comfortably. 21 points have been won after coming from behind and by the team chasing the game. Some may argue that is commendable, but it is happening far too often.

Oh I’m miserable Evonne :-(
I do think City will win today, so my biggest fear is Bayern not winning!
At this point I’m not singling out individuals (manager or anyone else) but as a team, we are defensively naive. I think individually our defensive players from the midfield backwards are far better than our “goals against” column would suggest.

Agree with much of what you say, hindsight is a valuable commodity in post match analysis.

My one question is why does it take the manager to motivate the players? They should not need to be motivated surely? If you’re a side struggling in relegation battle motivating players is a necessity. But motivating your players to win a game when you have so much to play for….I don’t get it. For most of us given the chance we would give everything we had in every game.

The most worrying thing for me yesterday was how the players froze when we had the lead. We didn’t attack when we had the ball but we didn’t defend when we didn’t. We valued not losing higher than winning comfortably. The players did not back themselves.

When we got the lead back we stopped playing again, instantly looking like a team that had no idea how to see the game out. There problem was trying to see the game out. They should of just continued to play the way they had been.

it was Wengers 900th game in charge and pat rices last home game as assistant..on top of that the players knew that 3 points would guarantee a top 4 spot with a possible chance of cementing third..all the cards were out on the table and in this situation, one can not blame the manager for not being able to motivate the players…

talking tactics is a different matter altogether…

losing arteta, jack n diaby and relying on an ageing rosicky and apprentice ramsey in a 38games plus cup games season, imo is as bad as having no natural fulbacks (as happened with us)..

if its not RvP out long term its defenders. if not defenders its midfielders…these are not one off cases..year in year out the curse of the treatment table hovers over our squad…

i said it before and ill say it again

Our squad is way too thin to compete on four fronts..

ps, if we lose RvP in the window, whether by choice or not, will simply mean we are back to square one and another so called transitional year awaits us…

RA,
My lobstering partner is me mate Sam (of the Wiff Waff Club) and he uses road kill, so yesterday he was offering the lobsters a delicious combination of rabbit and squirrel. I, on the other hand, use tins of cheapest fish cat food with holes jabbed in them so that the aroma gently wafts out. This is very competitive.
It always ends in tears of some kind. Invariably with one of us in wet suit swimming out to retrieve stray pots!

Evonne I’m not avoiding you I gave my thoughts on Szczesny’s performance yesterday afternoon.

It wasn’t great……but my only question to you is can you say the team in front of him helped him at all….my answer is no. You may differ, but with a couple of defenders and midfielders defending properly all those chances don’t happen. He was at fault for the first and didn’t recover. Could do nothing with the second and the third he just compounded all the precious errors in front of him.

in answer to your question”why does it take the manager to motivate the playes ”

I wish i knew, I agree they should be motivated themselves,especially with so much at stake.
Chelsea are a good example of a turn around with the same players yet a different manager. Maybe Wenger can’t get though to some of them, maybe some just aren’t capable of raising their game consistently and maybe he himself is being outwitted more an more by the opposition, as basically he keeps to the same game plan.